Price Of Freedom

You have rights. I have rights. Everyone in every city, town, borough and municipality in this country has rights. Rights are intangible. We cannot clutch them in our hands. We can only hold them in our hearts, and this is where they belong. As long as we have rights -- guaranteed rights -- we are free. But once these inherent freedoms are no more, we are no longer free and independent.

Many people can and will say much of us, our rights and freedom. Yet, nothing is so important as what those rights and freedom mean to us, to them and to those who are without them. For without freedom, without rights and without independence, we and they are nothing. Without them, we are no more than slaves who are subservient in all things to a master or, masters, we do not even know.

No free person wants this, nor does any person who is subject to the authority of a dictator or tyrant. All people want to be free but no person can give me, or you, these rights or this freedom. We must earn it! You and I must pay for it with our sweat, blood and tears.

If we want freedom, and if we cherish inherent and inalienable human rights, then we will be willing to suffer and die for them. If we are unwilling to suffer and die for the right to be free, to determine our own destiny and to have guaranteed rights under the law, then we do not deserve them. It is that simple.